Negative Self Talk and Stinking Thinking

Are you plagued by negative self talk and stinking thinking? You don't have to be. This damaging mental chatter has no business dominating your mind. A certain level of negative thinking is normal, but when you are barraged by self-criticism or a dismal view of the world and almost everyone in it, that can make you miserable. Deeply held negative beliefs, especially when unconscious, stress you out, damage relationships and limit your potential
for health and happiness.

The first step to shift your thinking is awareness.

How negative self talk and limiting beliefs are acquired

There is a biological reason for negative self talk. It is part of brain's wiring for safety and survival. Parts of your subconscious mind attune to the negative in order to alert you to danger. Most of us indulge in some stinking thinking about ourselves, a situation, or others throughout the day.

Because we no longer have to constantly watch for predators, the ever-vigilant amygdala creates mountains out of molehills in relationships and life circumstances. Left unchecked, it can turn minor annoyances and imperfections into consuming major emotional events. When acted on, they lead to unhappiness, compromised health, strained relationships, and reactive decisions and actions you may later regret.

﻿In addition to this innate tendency, you can also thank unconscious mind programming for your troubling thought patterns. So-called truths about who you are, your worth, and your capabilities are primarily acquired between birth and six years old. you. This firmly laid foundation of mindset patterns, positive and negative, will control your thinking and behavior for the rest of your life unless you change them.

How does this happen? Young children up to six years old have brainwave frequencies that make them especially conducive to programming, especially from authority figures. They readily download 'facts' about who they are, others, and life based on their observations and what they are taught. This information forms the basis of beliefs and shapes personality, thoughts, emotions and feelings, and subsequent actions.

How negative thinking gets ingrained in our minds

The brain creates neural pathways according to your thoughts. These pathways are strengthened and can even double in the span of an hour with repetition. Now get this - in order to have enough building blocks for this pathway, it will disassemble one that is not in use. So if you regularly focus on what makes you angry, you may find more opportunities to get angry while your loving thoughts diminish.

As your brain changes, so do your cell receptors. In a way, your body becomes addicted to those feelings and demands more chemicals from your brain to induce those feelings. So when you notice that you are caught in a vicious cycle of negative self talk and unhappy emotions, you are right.

This cycle of repetition and programming starts at birth and even in utero.

Children grow up hearing and internalizing an abundance of negative self talk and limiting beliefs. They hear and see their parents, relatives, TV personalities and teachers focusing on bad news. Remember those big red circles and checks for wrong answers? The disapproving glances? The outright teasing and bullying? What registers in the mind is that I'm stupid, no good, unloved, not important or unworthy. Those neuro-pathways become more entrenched and connected to other pathways.

Add to this that children want to emulate their people. They are also adept at drawing their own conclusions based on their observations and interpretation of the world, sometimes erroneously.

An example of unintended stinking thinking

At about five years old, my youngest son illustrated how easily and innocently this happens. He felt hurt because he believed my mother, his grandmother, favored his older brother. Why? Because she always kissed the eldest boy goodnight first.

When he shared this with my mother, she felt terrible. She told him that she just naturally climbed up to the top bunk before coming down to kiss him on the bottom bunk. That thought never occurred to him.

I hate to think how this may have harmed their loving relationship and his self-worth had he not spoken up, been listened to, and given the first kiss every other night after that.

How stinking thinking sounds

Stinking thinking sounds like put downs of self and others, limitation, and unrealistic fear. It may sound like the churning of worry or a hateful blame-ridden barrage. You may seethe with jealousy or burn with shame. The words you tell yourself make you feel badly toward yourself and others.

It can also be more insidious, like the witch pretending to kindly offer Snow White a poisoned apple. These are the manipulative thoughts meant to keep you in the same old, same old. That's what my thought pattern sounds like when it's enticing me to eat junk food.

"Oh, come on, you know you love it, just a bite, just once more..."

Negative self-talk can also sound like exaggerated or positive thinking.

For example, telling yourself you are worthy, loved, intelligent, and other healthy self talk is a good thing. It is quite another to pump yourself up with thoughts of superiority- that you are the smartest, most beautiful, richest, or most deserving of all. These negative thought patterns are sure signs of low self-esteem or narcissism.

Such talk can even backfire.

In her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck points out that children who are told they are smart or talented, and believe that self worth and success are based on fixed attributes are least likely to excel or stay at the top. They are afraid to take risks because they may fail and crush their fragile self-concept. They limit themselves to what is easy instead of applying extra effort and facing challenges in order to improve and grow. They believe risking failure and needing to try hard means they are not smart after all, and that is the biggest risk of all.

Negative self talk and the law of attraction

There is a common misperception among law of attraction fans that we should not acknowledge our negative self talk and beliefs. We must only focus on the positive when trying to change our reality because "as a man thinks, so he is".

This is true. What you focus your energy on is what you attract more of, especially when thoughts are paired with emotion.

But herein lies the glitch.

Lying to yourself and living in denial may pump up your ego, but
it is not reality and it is not healthy. You are not fooling
your subconscious. It knows and aligns with your true beliefs.

To make matters more difficult, you may not know what all of those beliefs are. You send more energy and attention to thoughts and emotions when you try to repress them. What you
resist, persists. You add fuel to the fire and create more of what you do not want. Acknowledge first. Then work on creating new thoughts.

This brings us back to "As a man thinks, so he is."

That statement is true but it is not referring to the conscious mind. It really should read:

"As a man thinks in his subconscious mind, so he is."

You can tell yourself all day long how healthy and happy you
are, but it will bacfire if your unconscious negative self talk is countering with:

"No you're not, who are you trying to kid?" This is the message you will be reinforcing. This is the message you would do well to acknowledge first.

About random thoughts

Do not concern yourself with random thoughts. Positive or negative, they are not likely to change the course of your life. Thinking these thoughts is what your brain does. Dismiss them if they are not relevant. Occasional negativity is not bad. Sometimes it is important and quite useful when it propels you away from danger or towards what you want.

Pervasive, fixed negative mindset patterns that make you miserable, derail your dreams, and keep you stuck in old habits do require your attention. It is within your power to change them. You begin to heal when you acknowledge your stinking thinking and emotions, and fully feel the accompanying sensations manifesting in your body. It is healthy to acknowledge the truth.

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